Colouring in the Gaps

After blowing off nearly 6 months of dust from my OCA course file I am now back to continue where I had left off. Photography has finally made it’s way back to the top of my ‘To do’ list after recovering from a dislocated knee and a mountain of work that Edmond Hillary would have refused to climb to the top of!

At the moment I’m in the middle of submitting my second assignment, Colour. Making decisions about about whether an image shows the relationship between contrasting, complimentary or similar colours. Also when does an accent of colour become too large to be an accent?! I enjoyed looking through previous photos I’d taken, and looking at them in a new way. I hope that my images show a variety of subjects. I just have to illustrate the movement in each image and then send them to my tutor.

Read All About It

Up with the high notes!

I recently entered the Daily Telegraph’s Photographer of the Year competition and it was one of 20 showcased on their website.

Causing a bit of a stir

, originally uploaded by digital-eye.

Been feeling a bit Christmassy and with the decorations up everywhere I thought it would be a great opportunity to take photos of colour. Within the space of 5 minutes I’d been stopped by 3 people all wanting to know what I was doing. I thought it was obvious, having my camera! I was spending a lot of time pointing my camera up at the decorations and one girl said she couldn’t see anything to take a photo of. I explained about my OCA course, but she still seemed unsure. It got me thinking how TAOP has really helped me to tune into my surroundings, but also that it’s a shame that people are so busy rushing around that they fail to see what’s around them.

Developing into on obsession!

Pointed, originally uploaded by digital-eye.

After much deliberation and mind changing I’ve finally decided on my final 17 photos for assignment 1….I think! I went to Tescos to get them printed. I was really excited to finally get to hold them. It occurred to me that I never usually get to this stage, my photos tend to stay locked away in my Mac on Aperture, with some appearing on Flickr. It’s made me think about printing more often and that, like ye olde film cameras, digital photos should be hanging on walls and sitting on shelves for all to enjoy.
I just need to spend this week writing the dialogue for my contrasts assignment, and then to complete the first few projects.

Flashy Curtains

, originally uploaded by digital-eye.

Thanks to Duncan’s advice about 2nd curtain sync, I reshot my v-dub pic. Second curtain sync will fire the flash about 1.5 milliseconds before the second curtain begins to close. Therefore the flash fires at the end of the exposure, freezing the v-dub, with backward streaks implying forward movement.
This enabled me to produce a sharper image.

To do list…

Assignment 1: To do list!, originally uploaded by digital-eye.

I’ve nearly come to a decision about what images to use. It’s so difficult to decide as my ideas about them seem to change every time I look at them. Even since doing this list I’ve changed my mind about a couple of them!
I’m giving myself a deadline of this weekend to complete Assignment 1, and then I need to get back on track with the projects!

Va Va Vooooooom

Moving, originally uploaded by digital-eye.

TAoP is taking over my life (in a good way!). I woke up yesterday morning with 2 shots in mind. The 1st was an idea for transparent, photographing my glasses on a page about lenses from my Canon guide.
The second was of a toy VW camper van, trying to use a slow shutter speed to capture the motion. It took a long time to come up with the picture above, using a 2 secs exposure and a desk lamp to provide extra lighting. I tried different directions, but I liked how in this one the V-dub is going away from the camera.

Water Coloured

After trying to take photos of my cactus for ‘pointed’ as part of assignment 1, I gave up and decided to do some more experimenting with exposure. I’ve been thinking about doing something like this for a while now, and now I feel as though I understand how my camera better to achieve it. It was raining and there was a lot of traffic outside, so I switched off the living room light and set up my camera next to the window. Using manual focus with a 60mm macro lens, I set the camera on a tripod with a 10 second exposure and an aperture of f/5.6. This longer exposure and smaller aperture enabled me to create a bokeh effect. I’m wondering if this could be a possible image for ‘liquid’ as part of my assignment 1 on contrasts. The blurred background appears to emphasize the wateryness of the rain drops. Maybe I’ll have another go at the cactus tomorrow!

Unautomatic for the people

Sunny weather for a change, so a great opportunity to go out and take some pics. It’s been difficult during the week because of the dark nights when I get in from work, and there’s only so many things I can photograph in my apartment! This morning I went out along the River Tees to take some possible shots for assignment 1. It was also a chance to have a play around with focussing manually. I can’t believe that in all this time I’ve had my camera it has taken until now to flick the switch from auto focus to manual. I feel so much more in control of the image I want to take, whereas before if the camera couldn’t focus then I would give in and change angle or distance. Now I can think much more about selecting what to focus on within the frame. I spent some time taking macro shots of the plants along the footpath. TAoP is making me apprecate things that I would have previously walked on by without p[aying much attention. A lot of the plants were either rounded or pointed, which were two of the qualities needed for assignment 1. Most of the leaves have now fallen, but I thought trees with one or two leaves left might make a good image for ‘few’. It wasn’t until I uploaded my images that I saw I had taken a photo of a spider on a web, next to some steel security fencing. I’m wondering if this could represent weak & strong. This is now my latest dilemma, deciding what photos to use and whether they represent the contrasts I want them to illustrate. I’ve added these possible pics to my Flickr Assignment 1 page.

I also finally completed Project 1. It had been weighing on my mind that I was so involved in the first assignment that I hadn’t started the practical side of the projects. But I’m off the start line now, so I’m now looking forward to tackling project 2.

At the top of my to do list is to fill in, and send off, my profile and contact my tutor. It feels the right time to do that now that I’ve made a start. Only another 66 projects and 5 assignments to go! :-/

One of the best parts of this course so far has been the OCA bloggers. It really makes a difference knowing how other people are tackling the projects.

Nice weather for ducks…and rowers!

, originally uploaded by digital-eye.

I woke up this morning with good intentions to take some photos for the first few projects, but the weather outside was terrible. Raining with a cloudy, grey sky. I live very close to the River Tees, which was swamped with drenched rowers racing along. I took a few shots to practice panning with the camera but I felt I could produce better pictures if it was brighter.
Instead, I decided to battle my way past the Christmas shoppers to buy ‘Masters of Photography’ by Reuel Golden. Although I love everything that’s photography it occurred to me, while watching X Factor last night (!), that I don’t know many famous photographers. So hopefully this book will be a starting point to make me more cultured…hehe!